Marta Krenz-Niedbała, PhD habil.

ABOUT ME

I am a biological anthropologist, Associate Professor in the Institute of Human Biology and Evolution, Faculty of Biology, Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznań, Poland

Marta Krenz-Niedbała,PhD habil.

Biological Anthropologist

I have always been interested in human biology and culture, in part because it is a family tradition in the maternal line. I left for my first archaeological excavations when I was only a few years old. I chose biology as a field of study in order to study human biology. I was most interested in issues related to the evolutionary processes in human populations. So far I have studied living people as well as skeletal remains of people from the past, adults and children, but it is the analysis of immature bones, to see how children grew and developed in different environments, that boosts my endorphin levels.

Google Scholar

Researchgate

ORCID ID

Education & Employment

since 2017 | Associate Professor

Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznań, Faculty of Biology, Institute of Human Biology nad Evolution

2017 – 2019 | Head of the Department

Department of Human Evolutionary Biology, Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznań, Faculty of Biology, Institute of Anthropology

2000 – 2017 | Assistant Professor

Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznań, Faculty of Biology, Institute of Anthropology

2000 | PhD in Biology

Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznań, Faculty of Biology, dissertation title: Biological and cultural consequences of Neolithisation in human populations on the Polish territories

Research

Adaptive strategies of past human populations

Population–environment interactions

Skeletal evidence of health and disease

Research methods in human skeletal biology

Biocultural factors influencing child growth and development

PROJECTS

Skeletal aging in the past and modern times

Mechanisms of aging of the human skeleton are nowadays particularly significant for aesthetic medicine, while this topic has not been thoroughly examined for past human populations. The focus is put on remodeling and resorption of particular regions of the facial skeleton, which correspond with areas of weakened skeletal support and most visible stigmata of aging.

Biocultural factors influencing growth and development of present-day children

The interest lies in complex interactions of genetic, socio-cultural, environmental, nutritional, and disease-related factors in producing growth and development phenotypes in children living in contrasting environmental and socioeconomic conditions. Interdisciplinary and multidisciplinary approaches involve collaboration of researchers working in different areas of human biology, medical and social sciences.

Urban-rural differences in health status in the past

Paleopathological analyses of skeletal remains carried out in order to reveal harmful effects of early urbanization on past human populations. Proto‐urban and rural settlements, differing in ecological and socio‐cultural environments, such as population density, hygiene level, and air pollution, reflected in the level of morbidity and growth processes, are measured through skeletal growth profiles and paleopathological traces of ill health, including diet‐related diseases and upper respiratory tract infections.

Research methods in human skeletal biology

This topic covers interests in adopting new methods to assess individual biological traits, identifiable from bones, including the components of the biological profile: age-at-death, sex, and stature estimation, as well as the traits associated with demography, paleopathology, and taphonomy.

Skeletal stress markers and living conditions in past human populations

Skeletal stress indicators, formed in response to adverse physiological stimuli, are used to infer about living conditions in the past, including: enamel hypoplasia, tooth size, stature, cribra orbitalia, porotis hyperostosis, Harris lines, spinal stenosis, craniofacial asymmetry, and activity-induced musculoskeletal stress markers.

Joint project: biology and demography of prehistoric populations

This longterm project invovles the principal investigator, Sylwia Łukasik PhD, and collaborators from United Kingdom and Australia, to carry out bioarchaeological analyses of Scythian skeletal remains, including their biological traits, health status, and demography.